1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output device capable of automatically determining a character output format for a recording medium.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An output device capable of providing characters without specifying a character pitch or margin has been known. In such a device, since the character pitch and the margin are fixed, a balanced output format as desired by an operator could not be produced. For example, where a left margin and the character pitch are fixed, if the number of characters in a line changes, a right margin will significantly change.
An output device capable of providing characters without specifying the character pitch has been known. In such a device, however, the character pitch is fixed and not variable. Accordingly, when the characters are provided on the recording medium by specifying the left margin, the right margin varies significantly depending on the number of characters in a line. Accordingly, an improvement has been desired to provide a balanced output format.
An output device capable of providing characters without automatically determining a margin has been known. In such a device, however, the margin is fixed and cannot varied as desired. Accordingly, the left and right margins in the output are not uniformly arranged and an unbalanced output format is produced.
An output device capable of providing characters without specifying the character pitch or the left and right margins has been known. In such a device, however, the character pitch and the left and right margins are fixed and cannot be varied in accordance with the size of the output medium. Accordingly, the same left margin or right margin is used for a narrow output medium and a wide output medium and hence an unbalanced output format is produced.
An output device capable of providing characters in accordance with a specified output format has been known. However, this device fails to provide for checking whether an output format has been correctly set before the characters are provided. Accordingly, the invalidity of the output format is detected only after an output command has been issued to the output device. As a result, papers are wasted or the unbalanced output format is detected only after output of the characters.
An output format error indicator which checks the validity of a given number of characters in a line and a given width of the output medium for the output format and indicates any invalidity has been known. In this device although an operator can specify the width of the output medium, the operator cannot use the device unless he or she knows the particular width of the output medium.
An output device capable of providing the characters while automatically determining a portion of the output format has been known. In this device, however, the output format automatically determined can only be seen after output of the characters.